Friday Follow Up-November 6, 2009

Welcome back Diener friends!

This week in art, we worked with Mrs. Gilbertson (better known as Ms. Jackie or Kelley's mom) to create a surprise auction item for this year's Diener School Auction! Each child was given a blank square tile that they painted using many different techniques ranging from stamping to dragging to free hand! The tiles turned out amazing and will soon be fired so that they can be put together to create our finished product! Be sure to look out for the auction item on May 26th!!

We continued to have fun playing all of our favorite instruments and movement games this week in music. In the primary class, we started learning Thanksgiving songs, including, "Five Little Turkeys." We did "Bop Til You Drop" and "Bear Hunt." In the Inters classes, we joined together for one big group music class and had played a lot of fun games, including "The Hokey Pokey," "Count and Move," and Instrument Pass! In the uppers classes, we continued to practice our songs for the upcoming Hebrew Home performance, including "The Star Spangled Banner," "Over the River and Through the Woods," "Oh Susanna," and "Home on the Range."

In fitness we worked on hand eye coordination and color matching by catching different color frisbees and matching the frisbees up with tHe same color cones. We also swatted down the frisbees in the air by hitting them with foam lacrosse sticks. We started out T-Ball unit on Wednesday and have been working on different throws (overhand, grounder, etc.).

In yoga, we learned a new word, Namise (ask your child the meaning!). We also used our eye pillows and learned a new position, a lung and playing baby.

This week in science, we continued to discuss the 5 senses and highlighted the sense of sight. The primary and inters classes had a blast listening to the story, "It Looked Like Spilt Milk," by Charles G. Shaw. In addition to this, we made our very own "spilt milk" pictures. They look amazing! The uppers classes created Five Senses poetry and assembled kaleidoscopes as appealing to the eye as possible. I was very impressed by how hard they worked! Please see end of blog for Five Senses Poems!

Everyone agreed (kids included) that the buddy program was the BEST ever this week! Mr. Aaron organized several group games to play. The children enjoyed working together as a team to keep a soccer ball on a parachute. They had to listen to each other and work together to be successful. We also took advantage of the beautiful fall weather by going outside to play an invigorating game of kickball. We are all looking forward to the rest of our sessions together!

This week in the social club, we focused on completing circles of communication. The kids are continuing to form bonds and friendships with each other and I am striving to asses them with this, sometimes difficult task. I encourage the students to ask friends for help to and to engage in social conversation. We have worked on puzzles, played with Legos, played outside, and created various arts and crafts projects!

MS. BARBARA'S CLASS-5 SENSES POEM:

I SEE MS. PATRICE, PEOPLE, AND BEAUTIFUL SHOES.

I HEAR FIRE ENGINES, WRITING ON THE BOARD, AND THE CREEKY CHAIR.

I TASTE ENCHILADAS, RAMEN, AND DUMPLINGS.

I TOUCH TOYS, PRESENTS, AND WINDOWS.

I SMELL MASHED POTATOES, PERFUME, AND FLOWERS.


MS. KATE'S CLASS-5 SENSES POEM:

I SEE OUR EXPERIMENT, A FLAG, AND CONSTRUCTION SITE.

I HEAR A SIREN, INSTRUMENTS, AN GUM.

I TOUCH THE CHALKBOARD, THE TABLE, AND THE CARPET.

I SMELL CHOCOLATE DONUTS, CHEESE PIZZA, AND SUBWAY SUB SHOPS.